On Cinco de Mayo, a Look Back at Laz Barrera

On Cinco de Mayo, writer Carl Cannon took a look back at legendary trainer Laz Barrera, who long held the holiday a sort of good luck charm. When Barrera's Mister Frisky went to the Kentucky Derby 24 years ago, the Run for the Roses was to be held on the fifth of May and Mister Frisky drew post position five.

The holiday was significant to Barrera, as someone who had grown up in Cuba, trained in Mexico, and eventually moved to California. Cinco de Mayo commemorates a Mexican victory against occupying French forces in Puebla in 1862, and now serves as a day to celebrate Mexican heritage for those in the States, in Mexico, or elsewhere in places like Puerto Rico and Cuba.

Mister Frisky did not win the Derby that year of course, but Barrera did not seem to be devoid of Derby success in his career–he conditioned winners Bold Forbes and Affirmed in the years before Mister Frisky went to the post at Churchill Downs in 1990.